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President Announces Proposal To Reform, Reorganize and Consolidate Government

Looking
to make our government leaner, smarter and more consumer-friendly, the
President will call on Congress to reinstate the authority that past Presidents
had, over decades, to reorganize the government.With the exception of President Ford, every
President from Herbert Hoover to Ronald Reagan had reorganization authority.Presidents had this sort of authority for
almost the entire period from 1932 through 1984.Unlike the authority granted in
the past, the President’s proposal would initiate new accountability by
mandating that any plan must consolidate government - reducing the number of
agencies or saving taxpayer dollars.

The
President will also lay out his first proposed use of that authority:
consolidating six agencies into one more efficient department to promote
competitiveness, exports and American business. The President knows this is a
make or break moment for the middle class and those trying to reach it.The President’s proposed reorganization would
help small businesses grow and, in doing so, would help get more Americans back
to work.

For
too long, overlapping responsibilities among agencies have made it harder,
rather than easier, for our small businesses to interact with their
government.Those redundancies have also
led to unnecessary waste and duplication. President Obama is committed to
rethinking, reforming and remaking our government so that it can meet the
challenges of our time and is worthy of the American people.

Today’s
proposal is just one example of the kind of action the authority he is
requesting would allow.

Competing in a 21st Century Economy

We’re
living in a 21st century economy with a 20th century bureaucracy. Our economy
has fundamentally changed but the government has not. The needs of our citizens
have fundamentally changed but their government has not. Instead, the
government has grown only more complex.

Over
the past three years the Obama Administration has taken numerous steps to
address this problem by eliminating government waste and inefficiencies.Clearly there’s more work to be done.

The President’s First Action

The
President’s first focus under the Consolidation Authority Act would be to make
it easier for America's small businesses – which are America’s job creators –
to compete, export and grow.

Currently,
there are six major departments and agencies that focus primarily on business
and trade in the federal government.The
six are: U.S. Department of Commerce’s core business and trade functions, the
Small Business Administration, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the
Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, and the U.S.
Trade and Development Agency.

This
is redundant and inefficient. Small businesses often face a maze of agencies
when looking for even the most basic answers to the most basic questions. There
is a whole host of websites, toll-free numbers and customer service centers
that at times offer them differing advice. The result is a system that is not
working for our small businesses.

The
President is proposing to consolidate those six departments and agencies into
one Department with one website, one phone number and one mission – helping
American businesses succeed.

One
Department: there will be one Department where entrepreneurs can go from the
day they come up with an idea and need a patent, to the day they start building
a product and need a warehouse, to the day they are ready to export and need
help breaking into new markets overseas.

The
new Department will lead the development and implementation of an integrated,
strategic, government-wide trade effort and have a focused capacity to help
businesses grow and thrive.

Business USA

We
will also be unveiling a new website: BusinessUSA. This site will be a virtual
one-stop shop with information for small businesses and businesses of all size
that want to begin or increase exporting.